King Vegeta (Dragon Ball Series)
King Vegeta (ベジータ王, Bejīta Ō) was the king of all Saiyans and the father of Vegeta and Tarble. He was also the commanding hero of the Saiyan Army, and led his people to victory in the Saiyan-Tuffle war, in which the planet was renamed in his honor. After his people were annexed by Frieza's Frieza Force, he had no choice but to pledge allegiance, but still kept power over his people. Appearance King Vegeta closely resembles his eldest son, Vegeta, though he is bearded, has brown hair, and is slightly taller than his son. Being a part of Frieza's army, King Vegeta wears the typical RIT armor with minor customizations, such as the red Vegeta Royal Family Crest on the left side of his armor. He also dons a blue and red cape, similar to the one Prince Vegeta wore as a child. King Vegeta sports a black undersuit and dark blue boots as well. Personality King Vegeta appears to be a stoic, level-headed and clever man, and a symbol of Saiyan pride. He is described by both King Kai and Dr. Raichi as having a brain equal to a Tuffle. He was also a ruthless and merciless military commander who openly took enjoyment in the end of his opponents, traits he was more than happy to pass along to his son, personally bringing him along in at least one such battle. Although he is "king," he has come to terms with the fact that his people have no real freedom under Frieza, but he does not let this feeling on to his people. One important aspect of King Vegeta, in the FUNimation dub, is that he was the only person Vegeta truly loved in his childhood and for most of his life. When Frieza fatally wounded Vegeta, he explained to Goku that, apparently, the reason why he served Frieza was because Frieza threatened his father. He also demonstrated a slightly paranoid attitude, as when he learned that a newborn Saiyan was born with an abnormally high power level, he ordered for the baby's execution without delay, and cited that his becoming a great enough warrior to overthrow the royal family is exactly the reason why he wanted him executed, a view that ultimately was well founded when Broly grew up to be mentally and emotionally unstable. Like his son, King Vegeta is shown to be a proud Saiyan, though like Vegeta during the Battle of Gods Saga, King Vegeta would swallow his pride when faced with foes more powerful than himself such as Frieza (though he would later attack Frieza once he realized the tyrant planned to destroy him and his people) and Beerus. However he did make the foolish mistake of giving Beerus the second most comfortable pillow on Planet Vegeta while keeping the first most comfortable for himself (a potentially costly mistake). However he willingly submitted to be punished by Beerus for his actions, which very likely prevented Beerus from destroying him and/or Planet Vegeta for his mistake (though as a result of the incident Beerus would later advise Frieza to destroy Planet Vegeta due in part to Beerus' perception of King Vegeta as stingy and his dislike of the evil of the Saiyan people which thrived under King Vegeta's rule). Though King Vegeta was known for his ruthlessness and was hardly any better than Frieza, King Vegeta seems to have genuinely cared for his son Vegeta and despite his shame and embarrassment over his youngest son Tarble's weakness, he chose to banish him rather than kill his youngest son, showing that even his ruthlessness had its limits. Biography Background King Vegeta became an important figure at the time when the Tuffles and the Saiyans lived together on Planet Plant. In Age 720, he alone was smart enough to rally and lead his people against the Tuffles in a conflict that raged for ten long years; this event was the Saiyan-Tuffle war. After the war's end in Age 730, the planet was renamed Planet Vegeta in his honor. In Dragon Ball: Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, Dr. Lychee commented on King Vegeta's intelligence and cunning, which Lychee himself compared to be on the same level as a Tuffle, showing that his genius was known and recognized even by his Tuffle adversaries. Shortly after, Galactic Emperor Frieza came into contact with the Saiyans, and provided them with space-faring technology after submitting to his rule. Though reluctantly, King Vegeta pledged his allegiance to Frieza, knowing the Saiyans were not powerful enough to defeat him. The Saiyans worked under Frieza for several years. In Age 731, he is married to an unnamed female Saiyan who likely becomes his Queen and presumably the woman who eventually bore his sons. King Vegeta and his unnamed mate bore his first child in Age 732, Prince Vegeta. The young prince would later be given to Frieza under unknown circumstances, although King Vegeta intended to rebel before he would ever let Frieza gain his son. As revealed in Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, King Vegeta and his unknown queen had a second son named Tarble, who lacked the fighting spirit of a Saiyan, and thus was sent away from Planet Vegeta as an infant, as he considered Tarble's gentle nature to be an embarrassment to the royal family, though in doing so he saved his youngest son's life and prevented him from being taken by Frieza as the tyrant had previously done with his first born, Prince Vegeta. Prior to Frieza's attack on Planet Vegeta, King Vegeta realized that Frieza had no further use for the Saiyans and no longer needed them around. He decides to rebel against Frieza's oppression, as well as retrieve Prince Vegeta, and mounts an assault with his royal guard on Frieza's capital ship. When he arrives in Frieza's chamber room, due to his elite guards being too fear-struck to attempt to aid him, King Vegeta ends up facing Frieza alone. Zarbon and Dodoria bear witness as Frieza dodges his punch with ease and effortlessly kills the Saiyan King with a single punch to the jaw. The Saiyan elites that followed are also killed by Frieza. Shortly thereafter, Frieza was confronted by a low class warrior named Bardock (the father of Kakarrot, a Saiyan who would become his eldest son's greatest rival) who had also become aware of Frieza's intentions after he had sent Team Dodoria to kill Bardock's Elite, which Bardock himself barely survived. Bardock too tries to kill Frieza with his Final Spirit Cannon before Frieza launches his final assault and destroys Planet Vegeta and the entire remaining population of the Saiyan race with a Supernova. Fortunately, both his and Bardock's sons (Kakarrot & Raditz) survived the planet's destruction along with Saiyan General Nappa as they were off planet when Frieza attack. Prince Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz would continue to work under Frieza, who told them that Planet Vegeta had been destroyed by a meteor, though Prince Vegeta himself suspected Frieza was responsible, though he himself had no desire to avenge either his people or his father's death. Meanwhile his son Tarble grew up on Planet Tech-Tech and eventually married a female Tech-Tech named Gure. Dragon Ball Z Frieza Saga King Vegeta is mentioned in the manga chapter "The Transformation" by Frieza (with the anime expanding it and showing a flashback of King Vegeta going to engage in a battle against Frieza), who says when he attacked planet Vegeta, where the Saiyans lived, he defeated the king, Vegeta’s father, without even needing to transform. Hearing this, Vegeta reveals he was stronger than his father when he was just a kid. In a filler scene, while a fellow Saiyan, Goku (the grown up Kakarrot), is battling Frieza on Namek and losing, King Vegeta appears before him in a vision along with Vegeta and Bardock, urging Goku not to give up and put an end to Frieza for the Saiyan race. Though Goku managed to become a Super Saiyan shortly afterwards when Frieza killed his best friend Krillin, and eventually managed to defeat Frieza on Dying Namek, Frieza managed to survive both the battle and Namek's subsequent explosion (due in part to Goku showing mercy on the tyrant), though his body was heavily damaged, forcing Frieza's father, King Cold to repair Frieza's broken body with cybernetics, transforming him into Mecha Frieza. However both Frieza and his father met their end shortly thereafter at the hands of Super Saiyan Future Trunks, the half-breed son of Future Prince Vegeta who had traveled to the past using his mother's Time Machine to prevent Goku's death and warn him about the threat posed by Dr. Gero's Red Ribbon Androids, but ended up killing both Frieza and King Cold when he thought that Goku would not arrive in time to stop them, unaware of Goku's ability to use Instant Transmission, unintentionally altering the past and avenging both the Saiyans and the death of his grandfather in the process. Prince Vegeta would eventually became a Super Saiyan as his father had hoped and after settling down on Earth with Goku's friend Bulma with her he would later father King Vegeta's two grandchildren, Trunks and Bulla. Dragon Ball Super God of Destruction Beerus Saga At one point, King Vegeta met the God of Destruction Beerus and he is seen used as a stepping stone. In Dragon Ball Super, it was further explained to that King Vegeta was being mistreated because he gave Beerus the second most comfortable pillow in the universe and kept the first best for his own after Beerus had tasked him with finding the most comfortable pillow in Universe 7. Beerus admonishes King Vegeta on the extreme measures he used to obtain said pillow (destroying countless races in the process) though being a God of Destruction he would have been willing to have accepted King Vegeta's extreme methods had he handed over the pillow like he had promised him instead of killing it for himself. However King Vegeta willingly submitted to Beerus' punishment without protest sparing himself, his son, and his people from Beerus' wrath. However the encounter left Beerus with a poor opinion of both King Vegeta and the Saiyans, causing him to suggest to Frieza that he destroy them and Planet Vegeta (essentially giving Frieza his blessing to commit the Genocide of the Saiyans, which ultimately resulted in King Vegeta's death at the hands of Frieza and the destruction of Planet Vegeta). While eating breakfast after a wake up from a thirty-nine year long nap, Beerus asks his attendant Whis if Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta while he was asleep, and he says the Saiyans and Frieza were very evil and that King Vegeta was stingy. Whis confirms that he has, and not a trace of the planet remains. Beerus is glad to hear this, as he did not care much for the people on that planet, particularly King Vegeta. Years later, Prince Vegeta recalls the event he saw when he encounters Beerus on Earth, at Bulma's birthday party. Dragon Ball GT Baby Saga King Vegeta is seen in a flashback in Dragon Ball GT, when Baby is explaining the Saiyan-Tuffle War to Vegeta. During the flashback he is also seen transforming into a Great Ape. Film appearances Cooler's Revenge Although King Vegeta doesn't actually appear in the film, he was mentioned in the FUNimation dub during the prologue for the film, where Cooler cited that the Attack Pod containing Kakarot could have just as easily contained the Saiyan's king for all his brother Frieza knew when complaining about how Frieza was so blinded by his arrogant pride that he failed to notice a space pod escaping the doomed planet. Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan "And I don't like arguments! You'll die with him!" — Before firing his Execution Beam at Paragus In Age 737, shortly before attempting to openly rebel against Frieza, King Vegeta orders newborn Broly to be executed due to his extremely high power level of 10,000, as this amount of power was seen as a possible threat to the royal Saiyan family. The father of Broly, Paragus, attempts to change King Vegeta's mind, but was blasted with an Execution Beam and thrown into a dump along with his son. Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans Battle of Gods King Vegeta makes a cameo appearance in Vegeta's flashback of Beerus' visit to Planet Vegeta. In the flashback, he is shown kneeling with Beerus' foot on his head while the God of Destruction is enjoying a meal that King Vegeta had prepared in an attempt to appease the God of Destruction, while his son Vegeta watches silently nearby. Power Anime King Vegeta was the king of the Saiyan race and the head of the royal family. His power level is stated to be around 10,000. In Dragon Ball Z, while he was facing Frieza on Namek, Vegeta remarked that, as a child he was already more powerful than his father King Vegeta. In the FUNimation dub of Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku, the doctors working on Bardock after his injury sustained on Planet Kanassa state that Bardock's power level is expected to pass up King Vegeta in a short time. Seen using the Great Ape transformation in flashbacks, King Vegeta's power level as a Great Ape would be 100,000 since the transformation multiplies your base power level by ten. This means his Great Ape form is above the likes of Zarbon, Dodoria, and most of the Ginyu Force except for Captain Ginyu himself (who possessed a power level of 120,000). Statements by authors and guidebooks Daizenshuu 7 states that King Vegeta was the strongest Saiyan at the time of the Genocide of the Saiyans. In an interview, the author Akira Toriyama says that while almost all Saiyans were low-class and that there were about 10 mid-class, the elite-class were made up of only King Vegeta and his son Vegeta.3 Technique and special abilities * Flight – The ability to fly with the use of ki. * Ki Blast – The most basic form of energy wave. * Execution Beam – A purple beam of energy King Vegeta used on a Saiyan messenger after the said soldier told him that they have to wait for three days to invade planet Tazba for Frieza's organization due to how long it is going to take until the planet experiences its Full Moon. He also uses it on Paragus in Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan to silence him after he protested against Broly's execution. * Super Energy Wave Volley – King Vegeta releases a rapid barrage of purple energy blasts at his opponent, causing a massive accumulation of damage. He uses this only in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. * Orga Blaster – King Vegeta rushes toward the opponent and smacks them aside. He then takes the opponent by their head, knees them in the face, and punches them in the same place. The final part of this attack involves King Vegeta using a large purple energy wave to blast his opponent away. He used the finishing blast against an army of Frieza's soldiers whilst invading Frieza's ship to rescue his son, Vegeta. * Explosive Wave – King Vegeta used it while on an unnamed planet with his elite. It is also one of his Blast 1 in his base and Great Ape forms in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. From what was seen of it, it was apparently powerful enough to not only destroy the planet he was on, but also the surrounding planets as well. * King of Saiyans – One of King Vegeta's Blast 1 in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. * Power Ball – The natural Saiyan ability to make an artificial moon to make use for transforming into a Great Ape. * Chou Makouhou – Great Ape King Vegeta releases a massive wave of energy from his mouth. He seen using it during a flashback of the Saiyan-Tuffle war in Dragon Ball GT. ** Chou Makouhou Barrage – Great Ape King Vegeta releases a rapid flurry version of Chou Makouhou. It is his Ultimate Blast in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. * Super Explosive Wave – King Vegeta releases a gigantic energy wave that deals far greater damage than the basic Explosive Wave. It is one of his Blast 2 in his Great Ape form in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. * Super Galick Gun – King Vegeta does use this technique in his Great Ape form in the Budokai Tenkaichi series. He fires it with one hand, in a similar fashion to the blast he uses to end Orga Blaster rush. * Howl – One of Great Ape King Vegeta's Blast 1 in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. Transformation Great Ape King Vegeta has the ability to transform into a Great Ape, as seen during a flashback in Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans, Dragon Ball GT, as well as in the video games Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and Dragon Ball Heroes. While transformed, he has mental control over the transformation. Video game appearances * Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Shin Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku - Uchū-Hen * Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 * Dragon Ball Heroes * IC Carddass Dragon Ball * Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle King Vegeta makes a cameo appearance in Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Shin Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku - Uchū-Hen. He then becomes for the first a playable character in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, King Vegeta's Battle Armor appears under the name Battle Suit (King Vegeta) as a obtainable outfit for the Future Warrior (Xenoverse 2). Voice actors * Japanese: Banjō Ginga (Dragon Ball Z and Budokai Tenkaichi 3), Masaharu Satō (Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan) * FUNimation dub: Christopher R. Sabat * Ocean Group dub: Terry Klassen '(Trunks Saga), 'Brian Drummond (Babidi Saga) * AB Groupe dub: Ed Marcus * Latin American dub: Arturo Casanova Trivia * King Vegeta is usually drawn with brown hair, but in a flashback that prince Vegeta has while recovering from a training exercise gone awry in the pre-Androids Saga and in Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, he is drawn with black hair. This is due to Vegeta stating in the manga that true Saiyan's hair is always black and does not grow. The animators did the same with Vegeta, first giving the character brown hair as opposed to black hair, but changing the color as episodes progressed. * Although numerous website summaries and the like state that he does, King Vegeta does not appear in Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku. This is most likely due to confusion with flashbacks in the anime. * In the "Dragon History" game mode of Budokai Tenkaichi 3, King Vegeta states "You will join your father in the next world" to Frieza. This means that King Cold and King Vegeta must have some sort of interaction at some point prior to his demise. This could also just be a plot within the story (though it is a "what if" scenario battle). * In Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, Vegeta's second alternate outfit is almost identical to King Vegeta's outfits in color, only missing the family crest on the breast plate. 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